Sounds great Mike! I was not implying that an engine compartment was not enough. It looks great I have plans for a couple of projects of this scope but unlike you I have not launched any of them. LAZY Me!!! Feeling inspired now!

Pete

Holy crap! You made the ITA offering look like a joke! I absolutely love seeing stuff like this, I would settle for 25% of your talent, damn your good!

Awesome work mike!

@ Keith: Quack, quack... Yea, the rain has actually been nice, but unfortunately, no work on the Churchill. Too many other projects in the works along with a looming deadline for some commission work have kept me too busy.

In regards to that other part of the build... Jeff's finished the scale plans, so now I just need the workbench time. I'll keep your generous offer for the flimsies in mind, though.

@ Pete: Oh, I don't call that being lazy! Some times it's just hard to find your muse and modeling-mojo. Glad that you're finding some inspiration here, though. I'll be looking forward to seeing what develops!

@ Pedro: Thanks for the props!

In regards to the ITA comparisons, while I appreciate the underlying sentiments, please understand that I never set out or intended to make any such comparisons on line. That entire issue was brought up by someone else. I probably should have just ignored it at the time, and now I'm sorry that I didn't.

I'm just building the way that suits me for this project, which is what I always do. Sometimes using some AM product or another works, and sometimes it doesn't.

I do appreciate your comments and thank you for the complements, but maybe it's best if we don't make any more ITA comparisons.

I'll be back at work on the Churchill soon and will have some new and, hopefully, mildly interesting stuff to post up.

'Til then, happy modeling!

Hi Mike,

I'm still following along. All that work is insanely AWESOME!!!

Looking forward to the next update.

@ John: Thanks, John! Glad you're following along.

Well, it seems an unconscionably long time since I've posted up anything new here. Just lots going on, and my time at the workbench has been committed to other projects.

But, finally, a break and some time to work on my own stuff.

what follows is a small offering to "Gods of Modeling" in hopes of getting my Churchill mojo back...

I've commenced with some of the Voyager PE, specifically, the fenders. These are just about kits in themselves, but I think when they're done they will reward the carefully observant with some fine details in unexpected places.

At any rate, the fenders begin with the front guards (flaps?), and over the last few build sessions, I've managed to finish the left one.

I've pretty much followed the instructions, such as they are. As usual, I soldered the assembly together for strength.

My only deviation was to replace the PE rubber mud flap with a piece of latex cut from a pair of rubber gloves.

I used a black marker to color the latex and the PE part to layout and cut a template from the sticky portion of a Post-it Note. I stuck this to the colored latex and then cut out the replacement. I glued it to the PE fender using one of the new acrylic glues (Gator's Glue).







The hinged part is the front edge of the main fender. The front guard will be able to fold up on these hinges, and the two parts of the hinge need to be formed together to be sure that will fit later. This part will be installed later on the main fender.





So, with that, hopefully I'll get back on track here.

Thanks for sticking by and happy modeling!

You're a braver man than I Gunga Din. I wish I had a permanent space to work with so I can try out soldering. It's a big enough pain to clear off the dining room table and break out the tools as it is and then pack them all up again a few hours later. Them's the breaks I guess. Anyways, get the mojo flowing and keep up the good work.

Kimmo

You do such nice work with the pe parts, Mike!

@Kimmo: Thanks for the vote of confidence! My modeling-muse comes and goes, but is generally there when I need it. Still, I'm a one-project builder, and too many distractions and other tangential projects makes it hard for me to get back on track with earlier projects.

I'm building up steam on the ol' Churchill now...

@ Bob: Very kind of you to say that! Hope to see you next week at your show.

BTW: Tell Kerry to get in touch with me (or you, for that matter) if you guys need me to bring up any of our club stuff. I'll be up on Friday afternoon to lend a hand with setup. See ya there!

So, building up steam on the Voyager fenders... I've finished up the right side front fender flap to go with the left one (last post). Pretty much a literal mirror image of the left side. Doing the second one, though, was much faster and easier than the first one.









And both front fender flaps together, side by side...







With that warm up done, it's time to get to "the main fender event." Fortunately, the rest of the fenders are pretty much just straight folds and bends. The rear fenders are curved, but they don't have the compound curved corner portions (thankfully!). The main fenders are complicated with the number of parts, and sequencing the soldering and folding will take some thought, but the job looks perfectly doable if not necessarily simple.

Happy modeling!

nice work mike you always make it look so easy
dave

Wow, they look so darn good I was nearly on the phone early this morning to the parts department at the RAC Museum in Bovington, enquiring about the possible loss of a pair of unpainted Churchill fenders from the stockpile of spares.

Really good stuff Mike, keep it a comin'

Keith.

I can safely say that is the most complicated PE job that I have ever clapt eyes on. Don't know how you do it,nut I am glad to watch and learn brother.
J

I also got another AFV Club churchill, The Dieppe one. This thread gives me help & inspiration, thx.

@ Dave V.: Hmmm... simple? Well, to paraphrase v. Clausewitz:

"Everything in PE is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult. The difficulties accumulate and end by producing complications that are inconceivable unless one has experienced PE."

Can't beat the classics!

@ Keith: LOL! Thanks, my friend!

@ Jerry: I donno, old buddy... I think sometimes you just have to climb mountains because they're there, and some modeling projects just have to be done for the challenge. I think these Voyager PE assemblies fall into that category - a challenge just for the fun of it.

@ David: Glad you're finding the build inspirational. The AFV Club Churchill kits are really first class.

I have to say that there's one guy in the world that I know doesn't get paid enough - the guy who builds the Voyager PE sets for their box top photos.

So, here's to you, Mr. Voyager PE-Building guy! You deserve a cold, frosty adult beverage AND a pay raise!

Moving right along with the Churchill fenders, after the front fender flaps (hoods?), the forward third of each fender is next.

Here's where Voyager has let us down - The instructions are, well, let's just say, the instructions leave a lot to be desired. There should be a lot more detail, and frankly, I think the hinged rear portions of the front fender flaps should have been included with the main fender construction and not with the flaps.

In order to fit my flaps to the front edge of the main fender, I had to CAREFULLY flatten and re-bend these parts. Re-bending PE is just asking for disaster - i.e. broken PE parts. I managed to do this, but I was worried the whole time that the bends would break.

I would suggest to anyone building these Voyager Churchill fenders in the future that you construct the front thirds of the main fenders and then bend these parts to conform to the profile of the main fenders. You'll still need the front fender flaps to check the main fenders against, but the hinge parts should be made with the main fenders and not with the flaps. It's a sequencing issue that's important to getting good fit and finish.

Part of the problem that I'm having with these instructions is that the ones included in my set are B&W photocopies and not the usual sharply printed, color-coded instructions. This is not the first set of Voyager PE that I've received with photocopied instructions, but in this case, the copies are difficult to read (as well as lacking detail).

Anyways, the photos tell the tale...









At this point, I think that the PE fenders also have to be fitted to the model hull. Adjustments and alterations can be made at this stage without breaking off details, etc. Lots of handling involved, which is why I'm building the fenders now.





In the photo above, the rivet heads across the heavy vertical plate are actually punched from heavy foil sheet. Voyager would have the builder emboss these rivet heads, but I thought it would be faster and impart less distortion in the PE part to add these as appliqués rather than do the embossing. The foil rivet heads are attached with acrylic matt medium.





One thing that Voyager does do that's very nice is that most of the bolt heads you can see on these assemblies are actually etched as little "tabs" along the edge of the PE parts. These are folded over and create a "double thickness" detail that "self positions." Once folded over, these are simplicity in itself to solder in place. Once soldered, during final clean up of the subassembly, the little "rump" edges of the tabs can be sanded off leaving the soldered on bolt heads.

A very neat design that speeds up construction over soldering on each bolt head individually.

Anyways, happy modeling!

Well,It does LOOK simple but....the fender curiously lacks all of the terrain features that mine would have after building it.
J

@ Jerry: Terrain features we add later!

So, just a short update for today.

I've finished the left front main fender and gotten a start on the right main fender center section.

Here's the completed left front fender.





And both front fenders together:



These are just sitting loose on the tank for now, and their weight pulls them down on the front. Still, I think the picture gives an idea of what the finished PE fenders will look like.

This is the right main fender's center section:



So far so good with this portion of the fenders.

That's all for now.

Happy modeling!

The track guard photoetch looks amazing. Always looking forward to the next update.

Simply amazing work, Mike!

so there will be a engine added ( like the transmission) ?

@ Christopher and Bob: Thanks, guys! Hope you're still hanging in there. Early stages for this build, even for as long as it's been going there's a lot more to come.

@ Tommy: No, no engine. The gearbox compartment is all of the interior detail that I'm planning at this time to add. I will have the turret hatches open, but there will be figures in the hatches with nothing else to see past them.

So... I guess I'd better breath some life back into this blog before it turns into a Zombie Thread!

It has been a good long while since I've posted up any new in-progress shots, but progress has been slow. Lots of distractions in the real, 1:1 scale world so not much time in the last couple of weeks to sit at the work bench.

However, I have been plugging away at the fenders and almost have the entire right fender done.

Not much to add to previous comments on the Voyager PE set. It's complicated and construction is tedious. The fenders can be built, but not quickly (at least not by me). I imagine it's hard to believe, but I have actually gotten faster with each fender section, so hopefully I'll finish up the left fender a bit more quickly (at least as time is measured at the work bench!).



















The right fender just needs the curved rear end portion over the drive sprocket.

One thing that might not be apparent in the instructions for anyone else doing a set of these is that the front and rear portions of the fenders angle slightly up towards their ends. The front and rear mounting flanges that attach the fender segments to the top edge of the hull are very narrow "wedge" shaped pieces, and I'd recommend taking some time to dry-fit and figure out how these parts should fit to the fenders and hull. There are also several edge-butt joints on some parts that Voyager could probably have designed for easier assembly.

My main criticism for the Voyager PE set would be the instructions, though. There are several left and right parts that are reversed on the PE sheets and the instructions really could show the assembly details much better (like the angled nature of the ends of the fenders).

Still, if you take your time, these issues can be figured out.

Happy modeling!

Well,
Excellence sometimes takes a bit longer and that is evident here.
Two things jump to my mind here as I take a gander at your progress.
One-you (no news here) are a gifted modeler
Two-what were the British design engineers thinking when they designed this beast? It likes like they went out of their way to make it as needlessly complicated as possible,also making sure there were the maximum amount of shot traps included. This is true of all their WWII tanks I think.
And this opinion comes from an Anglophile that loves visiting the UK,loves here people and music and just about everything about the place. And yes,I love the Mini Cooper and Lotus and Rolls Royce,Triumph and MGs as well so what happened with the tanks guys?
J

Really great job on the PE fenders Mike! They really look the part.

@ Jer: Aw.. shucks, yer makin' me blush!

Seriously, tho, thanks for the props, brother.

Yea, I know what you mean about how complicated this tank seems to be. I think it's the example of everything that was right and wrong about British tank development and production during WWII.

On the one hand, it was very well armored and had remarkable cross-country capability. On the other hand, it was the ultimate WWI tank... just produced twenty-plus years too late. Arguably it was the best "infantry" tank produced during the war at a time when tank doctrine was clearly trending toward the universal, main battle tank concept.

One thing that has really impressed me was just how big the Churchill was. It's enormous compared to most of its contemporary peers. The foot print's almost the same size as the King Tiger.

Anyhow, it's a very interesting subject.

@ Pete: Thanks, Pete! Glad you're still checking in on this one.

Today is just a little up-date to close the loop on the right side fender assembly.

These are a couple of happy snaps of the right rear fender section over the drive sprocket.









Not much to add to the Voyager PE fender description and construction that's not already been said.

There is a long, angular bracket that connects the inside of the rear fender section to the top edge of the rear hull. The Voyager instructions show this installed onto the model at the same time as the fenders are added, and this seems like a smart way to get a good, clean fit between the rear fender and the hull, so that's what I will do.

Other than that, it's on to the left side fender!

Happy modeling!

After investing that much time I bet you get wicked nervous when you grab the airbrush!

Top job

Where is the "Jaw hitting the floor smiley"????

Just one word can describe this thread. AWESIOME!!!

What kind of primer are you gonna use on all that PE?
J